Every Child Deserves a Family

If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter, you probably saw our posts seeking items to furnish an apartment for a foster youth named Jeremy*. 18 year-old Jeremy is one of the first foster youth to enter a new kind of specialized foster home program CCS has developed. Jeremy is polite, helpful, and smart and for the past few years, he has been living in a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility. While this residential facility provided Jeremy with the vital treatment and support he needed, it impeded him from having a foster family or being involved in the community. Fortunately, Jeremy excelled in this residential setting and recently became ready to live with a family once more! But placing Jeremy in a foster home is not simple.

Foster youth who stay in residential facilities, like Jeremy, tend to have a history that looks bad on paper and it can scare off potential foster parents. Plus, they require such a high level of support and attention that traditional foster homes are not equipped to serve them so these youth typically remain in these facilities. When a youth is cleared for release but has to stay in a residential facility because there is nowhere else for him to go, the child can lose motivation, revert back to old behaviors and/or pick up new behaviors. CCS believes that every child deserves to have a family and be part of the community so, when Amerigroup (who oversees the healthcare of Georgia’s foster children) approached CCS about partnering with us to develop specialized foster homes that will serve these most difficult cases, we jumped at the opportunity to provide Jeremy and youth like him with the opportunity to be typical teenagers. It is CCS and Amerigroup’s goal to help these youth continue progressing and provide them with lasting relationships, instead of a rotating staff of clinicians.

We intend to reach this goal by setting up homes for these youth with foster parents who we have trained specifically to care for their youth’s specialized needs. We have asked these foster parents not to work so that they can give the youth their full and constant attention. With support from Amerigroup and the Department of Family and Children Services,  CCS will cover rent, living expenses and pay the foster parents a salary. CCS will also pull from many of our programs to provide intensive support to the youth and foster parent(s). One of our SOAR Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention Specialists will meet with the youth and foster parent(s) three times a week to help reinforce positive behavior and decrease negative behavior. A life coach from our STEP program will work with the youth to reach his/her goals toward independence. The foster homes will also be provided with weekly case management meetings, where our staff will brainstorm solutions to any issues that may arise, and 24/7 on call support.

It is because of our specialized programs that CCS was selected to be the first foster care agency in Georgia to provide these intensive support foster homes. We are excited for the privilege of allowing Jeremy and foster youth like him to live independently and be involve in the community. Now that he is out of residential care, Jeremy has plans to join the Boys and Girls Club and take karate lessons; we are thrilled that we get to help him achieve his goals.

There are more foster youth like Jeremy who are ready for a home and family of their own. We already have two others who are waiting to be placed in a home but we need more foster parents! If you are interested in working as a professional foster parent in our modification of traditional foster homes, please contact Anne Sanders at asanders@ccsgeorgia.org or 770-469-6226.

*The foster youth’s name has been changed to protect his identity.

The Miracle of Family: A Reunification Story

Today’s post was contributed by Lisa Nunn. Last July, Lisa came to CCS as a family consultant in our Therapeutic Foster Care program. She has since been promoted to TFC Intake Supervisor. During the transition, our other skilled family consultants took over most of Lisa’s cases but she continued to serve a few youth with whom she had built a deep relationship. Lisa wanted to share the story of one of those youth whose time with CCS is coming to a close. Do not fret for this story has a happy ending!  

I have been working with a youth since July of last year and she has been with one of our Therapeutic foster parents since May of last year.

This youth was adopted at the age of 2, it was an open adoption; therefore, she was never in state care. A year later the adoptive family moved from out of the state where the child was adopted and did not stay in contact with her biological father. They moved several times and ended up here in GA where they placed our youth in custody based on their inability to care for her needs. The biological father was never told where his child was. Ten years after not knowing where his child was, he discovered she was in DFCS custody here. He immediately contacted DFCS and this past fall he attended court where a reunification case plan was ordered. This youth told her teacher that meeting her father was the happiest day of her life.

Since October of last year I have been working weekly with both the youth and her father, along with his wife and their daughter, to build relationships via FaceTime.

At the 3 month review in January it was ordered for this youth to do a home visit before the April court date. DFCS sent this youth to visit with her father and extended family during the Easter/Spring Break holiday. The court review was held at the end of April where the Judge ordered that once school ended (5/21) this young person would move back to the state of her birth to be with her father and in 6 months or less his rights will be restored.

I asked this youth if I could take her somewhere/anywhere before she left where would she want to go. She answered the Georgia Aquarium. Well…. A BIG THANKS to One Simple Wish, this youth and I will be going to the Aquarium this Saturday. And bitter-sweetly Sunday morning she will board a plane to fly to be with her father.

Thank you for allowing me to share!

Lisa M. Nunn

Lisa and this youth’s story is a shining example of the work our Therapeutic Foster Care team does to fight for what is best for the children they serve. All of us at CCS are sad to see this youth go but also thrilled for her to be reunited with her family.